Thursday, March 08, 2012

More shady dealings related to the New Mexico State Fair's contract with the Downs at Albuquerque has led Independent Source PAC (ISPAC) to pass along more information to the FBI for its investigation into the conduct of Gov. Susana Martinez, her administration and her political operatives at Susana PAC.

Susana PAC's main fundraiser, Andrea Goff, is Buster Goff's daughter-in-law. Buster Goff was appointed to the State Fair Commission by Martinez, and was allowed to alter the Downs contract in exchange for his "yes" vote.

It wouldn't seem strange that a commissioner was allowed to alter a contract's wording before voting for it, except Goff got a chance other commissioners did not. Charlotte Rode, another commissioner who has been outspoken against the deal, wasn't even allowed to look at the contract before she voted against it.

Susana PAC documents say Andrea Goff got paid more than $29,000 by the organization between April and September last year.

The Goff connection is yet more smoke relating to a contract worth $1 billion-plus to the Downs owners, who have donated thousands of dollars to Martinez through her PAC. ISPAC has reported extensively over the last few months on Martinez's numerous manipulations throughout the process of awarding that contract.

Another revealing development is ISPAC’s finding regarding Agnes Maldonado who was appointed to the position of Director of Administration for ExpoNM (the entity overseen by the State Fair Commission). Maldonado received thousands of dollars from Susana PAC for professional services while she was an employee of the State Fair entity.

Michael Corwin commented, “Isn’t this the Governor who promised bold new leadership and no more pay to play? More smoke may mean a bigger fire.”

The most recent letter to the FBI from ISPAC is attached and also can be seen along with other related documents at www.independentsourcepac.org.